


Translation

by Dirt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Keith is a Mess, Lance is good at languages, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9578450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dirt/pseuds/Dirt
Summary: Lance finds he has some skills he never thought he would use in space.Keith thought he was being discreet.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I know this has been kinda done before? But like I really like this. Also languages other than English are in italics.  
> Edit: So I'm going to write more on this, if anyone has anything they want to add to this headcanon just tell me and I might add it in :)

"On your left!" Keith shouted at him as the gladiator rushed towards him. Sadly keeping track of his gun, the gladiator, Keith and his lefts and rights at the same time was confusing to Lance, he ended up dodging right, going straight into the line of fire.

Thankfully Keith managed to block the oncoming blow that Lance was sure would have left a painful bruise. Keith turned to glare at Lance once he had sliced the robot making it stop. 

"I said left!?" 

"I got confused dude! A lot was happening." Lance shrugged in his defense, Keith just rolled his eyes, bringing his hand up to brush the hair out of his face, Lance ignored his stomach doing flip flops at that. This had been the third time in a row Lance had messed up while they were fighting the gladiator and he could feel Keith gradually getting more and more annoyed at him, another two more times probably and Keith will be ready to tell him how bad he is at this and then stomp out of the room as usual. Lance gave a sigh. It really wasn't his fault that Shiro kept pairing them up for training exercises. He glanced over to where Hunk and Pidge were dueling against another one of the robots, they're teamwork was still a bit disjointed in combat but unlike his and Keiths, it was improving.

"Come on, lets go again." Keith grumbled, and took up his fighting stance, with Lance following behind after him. "Don't mess up." 

Keith signaled for the training to begin and one of the robot gladiators appeared and moved to attack them, Lance always wondered where they came from, was there just a stock of them hidden in the castle somewhere? He wouldn't doubt it, he thought as he dodged a swipe from said robot. 

As the robot turned to face Keith, Lance lifted his gun to fire a few shots of that narrowly missed but thankfully didn't get the attention of the gladiator. Then suddenly another robot appeared and Lance had forgotten they were supposed to be fighting several at once, oh crap. He backed away as it came closer. 

"Lance! Dodge to your right!" Keith shouted behind, oh yeah there was another one behind him, great. He jumped to what he thought was his right but turns out he was wrong, as he felt himself get whacked in the back with the gladiators weapon and thrown harshly across the training area. He was never really the best at directions. He hit the ground with a painful thud and briefly heard Keith call off the robots and stomp over towards him.

"Seriously? How can you suck so bad as something so easy as left and right?!" Keith shouted at him as Lance groaned rolled over onto his bruised back to glare at him. Turns out it would only take one more failure for Keith to shout at him.

"Look it's not my fault, there's to many robots." He replied looking up into Keith's face that was scrunched up in that way that Lance knew meant he was annoyed and done with him, it would be cute or even endearing if it didn't usually follow with Keith shouting at him.

"Of course it's your fault, dumbass! Next time I'm not even going to warn you, I'm just going to let it hit you!" Aaand there was the shouting.

Shiro by now had realized Lance and Keith had stopped fighting the gladiators and began to fight each other. Lance could see Shiro sigh as he made his way over towards them. Of course he felt slightly guilty at making Shiro have to break up the fights every time, but then again it was his fault he put them together, so really he could only blame himself.

"Guys come on, we haven't even been training an hour." Shiro said with a tired look on his face as he held out a hand to help Lance up off the ground. Keith still had that annoyed expression on his face.

"He can't follow basic directions Shiro! Why can't you put me with someone that I can actually work with for once?" Keith raised his voice but Shiro only looked slightly unamused at his shouting.

"Well when you two stop shouting at each other and actually focus, you do work well together, that's why I make you train." He replied and Keith pouted and looked away, Shiro ran a hand through his hair and looked over to where Hunk and Pidge were both sprawled on the ground after getting their asses handed to them by the robot. Lance was secretly glad that he wouldn't be the only one with bruises later on.

"Ok, let's call it a day and get some food, yeh?" Shiro said with a look Lance could only describe as fading optimism. 

"Well, maybe you'll be better at giving directions next time Keith." Lance teased and watched as the other boy turned to stomp out of the room.

"Shut up!  _If your face wasn't so pretty I'd punch it_ _._ " Keith shouted back at him, mumbling the last bit under his breath in Korean, but Lance still heard him and so did Shiro from the slight smirk on his face and the warning 'Keith' he got in reply.

You see up till a while ago Lance would have taken Keith's insults about him being terrible to heart, and yeh Lance still found himself being annoyed that he couldn't just get the training right for once and maybe it sucked that he was always messing up like an idiot but it helped to know that Keith, was also an idiot. 

Keiths weird insult/compliments in Korean started a few weeks ago while they were training on their own. Lance had accidentally tripped Keith up while trying out a new dodging move and falling on his face as well. (Look it seemed like a cool idea at the time.) Keith turned around with a face nearly as red as his lion, out of anger or embarrassment Lance wasn't sure but he presumed both, and yelled angrily 'You idiot!  _Why does your annoying face look so pretty and stupid._ '  

It had taken Lance a minute to register that Keith had just shouted at him in another language. He hadn't heard Korean in a long time and was trying to translate the words once he realized. And when he did he felt the heat rise in his cheeks a little. Keith just said he was pretty!

'Um, what?' He replied trying to make it sound as casual as possible, still a bit wierded out that Keith had just managed to make a compliment sound like an insult. Keith's face some how managed to get redder and his eyes had gotten a bit wider after he realised he what he had shouted to Lance. 'I said your face is stupid!' Lance pretended to look confused and tried to hide the smirk he could feel forming on his face, 'You spoke in another language?' He had asked and watched as Keith's slightly embarrassed and panicked face relaxed a bit once he realised Lance hadn't understood what he had said. 'Yeh, Korean.' He replied and that was the end of the conversation.

After that it started happening regularly where Lance would mess up and Keith would give him an angry sounding compliment in Korean, Lance would pretend to be confused but he never directly asked the other boy to translate what he was saying to him and he guessed Keith just thought he was thinking it was another throwaway insult. So Keith continued and sometimes in front of the others too, every now and again Shiro would hear him and chuckle, replying in Japanese ' _Keith your crush is showing.'_ to which Keith would reply back in Korean. Lance found it interesting that they both spoke different languages but understood each other perfectly. Often when they stated getting into conversations in their languages Hunk would say it wasn't fair if they weren't going to tell them what they were saying, jokingly, and Lance would sometimes see Pidge silently agree. 

So, ok, he knew he probably should have told Keith straight away that he was fluent in Korean and had understood him perfectly, and, yeh he should have just said he figured out his crush by then and told him that his face was also pretty and stupid and then kiss it but Lance couldn't help wanting to mess with Keith a little bit. It's very rare that he gets these sort of opportunities. Also he was kind of liking the angry compliments and had a feeling they might stop if Keith knew. So he let it continue for a bit longer than necessary.

Anyway it wasn't his fault that Keith chose to shout compliments.

 

-

 

 Lance had always found listening to people speak in other languages interesting, even if he didn't understand them. It was just intriguing to hear how different each dialect sounded, how some could be harsh or soft or filled with emotion and colour, even if they all meant the same thing in the end. 

Since before he could remember he had been able to speak Spanish and English but it wasn't until his Japanese neighbors moved in did he start wanting to learn other languages. He had heard them talking every now and then to their daughter who was a few years older than Lance when his parents invited them over, he liked the sound of it and had asked the girl to help him learn in return for him helping her learn more English. 

After that he had sort of just started learning languages as a hobby, he enjoyed it and he found that he was pretty fast at learning them too. He learnt french in school and was top of the class in no time, Lance had never been the best at maths so he was glad to finally be good at something.  He had picked up Korean simply because he thought the alphabet looked like a cool space language, and began to teach himself. He remembers the first time he tried to speak to one of the Korean kids in his class in Korean to try it out, the kid had looked kind of confused at his pronunciation but after a minute he understood that Lance was trying to speak to him. The kid had started to help Lance with his Korean and after a while they actually became pretty good friends.

So after a while, learning new languages had just become a thing he did whenever he felt like it, or if he was bored, so it was no surprise when he found himself trying to learn Altean after having been in the castle for a while. He didn't actually think his language learning skill would ever come in handy in space though.

"Paladins, please report to the dining hall." Corans voice suddenly shouted through the speakers in Lances room, shaking him from his thoughts. He sighed and got out of his bed drowsily. He hoped they didn't have to go on a mission right now, he was still sore from the training earlier.

He made his way up to the dining hall with the other paladins and took a seat near Keith and Pidge who looked just as up for a mission as Lance was. Allura was sitting at the top of the table with Coran and several heavy looking books beside her.

"In a few days we will be meeting with the leaders of a planet called Baanza, they have shown interest in joining the voltron alliance and would be a great benefit to have on our side. Their culture and social codes are very different to ours and I want to make sure nothing happens that might offend them." Allura said and made a pointed look towards all the paladins except Shiro, her gaze lingered just a bit longer on Lance and he felt himself sink in his seat a little. Why did everyone think it was always going to be him messing up? 

"So I have found several Altean books about Baanzian culture and etiquette." She smiled as Coran passed the books out to each of the paladins, each landing with a slam in front of them. Lance eyed his warily, he was really hoping this book was mainly pictures. Shiro opened his and then looked up with a furrowed brow. Lance opened his own and was sadly disappointed that there was very little pictures, he was glad he had started learning Altean in his spare time though as he found he could understand what was written pretty well.

"Ah Princess, you do know we don't know Altean, right?" Shiro said and raised an eyebrow. Allura looked as if that thought had not crossed her mind.

"Oh, of course, I forgot, me and Coran will read it out to you then." She said and reached to pick a book up. 

"Wait, let me try. I've been using that Altean teaching thing and I think I know a few things by now." Pidge piped up sounding happy to be able to try out something new. Lance hadn't even known there was something on the ship that was meant for teaching Altean, he'd have to ask Pidge about it later. She opened her book up beside Lance and fixed her glasses on her nose.

"Um so, the Baanzaians are...something...and they have...um...wait does it say something about their greeting here. Wait that doesn't seem right." Pidge began and stopped to look at the page in confusion.

"That's alright Pidge, you've only been learning Altean for a little while, it's hard to master. I'll read it out." Allura said politely with a smile on her face.

"Wait let me have a try." Lance said and took the book out of Pidges hand, scanning the page. Alluras face dropped slightly.

"Lance I don't think you would understand that book at all, it's not in English you know." Keith spoke up from beside him but Lance rolled his eyes and decided to ignore him. Pausing to look at the page and translate it he began.

"The Baazaians are quite large people, often compared to the great moochin trees of the Altean forest. They have several different ways of greeting each other, from polite to not polite. It is important to know the difference." Lance read out the first short paragraph and then paused to look up when he realized no one was correcting him. He found that all the others were looking at him in surprise. Coran took the book from his hands and looked it over.

"Well, looks like he got it spot on!" Coran said cheerfully and the others all looked to him again. Lance felt a bit betrayed that they were this surprised that he could do something. 

"Lance, how did you know that?" Allura asked inquisitively. 

"I'm I've been teaching myself when I was bored." Lance replied and started to feel a bit self conscious of all the states he was getting. As much as he loved being the center of attention he prefers it when people actually say stuff.

"With the teaching thing that attacks you when you get it wrong?" Pidge asked him, and he gave her a strange look. What had Pidge been using?

"What? No, I just taught it to myself, you know using books and those translator thingys." He told her and she looked like she had been betrayed by her Altean teaching thing.

"Well Lance I must admit that is amazing, Altean can be a very difficult language to learn." Allura said with a smile and he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride for being complimented. He smiled back at Allura and shrugged.

"Well I've always been pretty good at learning languages. It's kind of a hobby." He said lightly.

"So earth has more than one language then? On Arus it was just the one, but I've heard of planets have many." Coran asked and he looked really interested.

"Yeh we've got like tonnes," Hunk said from across the table, finally breaking the silence that would have become awkward if it went on for any longer, Lance was glad about that. "Most people know one or two, like I know English and a bit of Spanish from Lance, Shiro knows Japanese and Keith knows Korean, Pidge know computer coding." 

"It's pretty much another language." Pidge huffed, feeling left out of the language circle.

"Fascinating, what ones do you know Lance, you said you were good at learning them?" Allura asked sounding interested about what he had to say.

" Well I know a bit of Russian, a tiny bit of Mandarin, some Polish. Fluently I know English and Spanish, obviously, Japanese, French, Italian cause I like the food and a bit of Altean now I guess." He told them and they all went back to shocked silence. 

"Teach me your ways, I don't want to be attacked anymore." Pidge begged and this was the first time she had ever asked Lance for help with anything, he was touched. 

"If you pick up languages that easily it could be very useful in diplomatic meetings." Allura said and looked like she had started thinking of way to do that. He hadn't really thought it would be any use at all but all this attention was stating to make him feel like he really had a skill to offer the team, something only he had. He couldn't help the smile breaking out on his face.

"That's like 9 languages Lance, that's insane." Hunk said and Lance laughed. Then he turned to Keith and felt his smile become a smirk. Save the best till last.

"I'm also fluent in Korean." He said and winked as Keith's face went red.

_

 

"So every time I said..."

"Yep."

"And you pretend not to know."

"Yep."

"Even when Shiro said-"

"Yep."

"And you were just going to let me keep doing it?" Keith asked him after the meeting had been sorted and he cornered him in the hall. Keith's face was red but Lance smirked at him and leaned In a bit closer.

"Yep, and your face is also stupid and pretty too, I've been meaning to say." Lance didn't think Keith's face could get any redder but it did.

"Shut up, I hate you." He said in reply and turned away from his gaze with arms crossed and a pout on his face. Lance couldn't help think it was cute, but then Keith looked back at him and his face softened. Oh crap, this was not good for Lance's heart.

"Please tell me you like me back and I haven't just been making my self an idiot." Keith looked at him warily and Lance rolled his eyes, he was pretty obvious when it came to who he liked, he was pretty sure Pidge and Hunk had already picked up on the fact he had a crush on Keith.

"You are an idiot." He began and faintly heard Keith mumble 'that's just offensive coming from you,' but he ignored that out of the goodness of his heart and carried on. "But I'm pretty sure I've liked you since the garrison, so yeh.." He trailed of, feeling slightly nervous at the way the other boy was staring at him.

Suddenly Keith's eyes widened and he grabbed Lance by the shirt, pulling him into a kiss. Lance was momentarily shocked out of his teasing by this but it only took him a second to realise Keith was kissing, holy cow Keith was kissing him! He pulled himself together and placed a hand behind Keiths head, threading fingers through his ridiculous hair, kissing him back. He had been wanting to do this for so long.

When they pulled back Keith was smiling and Lance felt himself smile too.

" _You sure you hate me?_ " He asked in Korean. Keith pushed him over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really like the head canon that Lance is good at languages. 
> 
> My tumblr is space-pal , come talk to me about voltron?


End file.
